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Research workshops and training

The library’s Research and Open Scholarship team offer a programme of both in-person and online workshops for undergraduate junior research associates (JRAs), postgraduate researchers (PGRs), early career researchers (ECRs), researchers, teaching and Professional Services staff.  The workshops focus on developing research skills, making the most of the library’s resources and innovation and developments within the scholarly communications field and are offered as part of the Researcher Development Programme (RDP).  Workshops are mapped to the main themes of Vitae's . Topics include:

• Literature searching
• Reference management using Zotero
• Open research
• Open publishing
• Copyright
• Publication metrics

Our sessions

• Choosing where to publish

  Choosing the right journal, the right publisher or the right publishing format for your research output can be daunting. If you’re new to publishing and not quite sure where to start, this workshop can help you sort out what's appropriate and what's not.

  Duration: 45 minutes

  Target audience PGRs and ECRs from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: D - Thrive (Engagement, influence & impact)

• Copyright and your thesis

  All PGRs need to understand how copyright relates to their thesis and prior to publishing your thesis you need to ensure you have obtained permission to use any copyrighted material and, in addition,  have thought about the terms under which you will be making your thesis available. As well as covering the publication of your thesis on SRO, this workshop will explain the main principles of copyright, consider how and when UK fair dealing exceptions can be applied and establishing  if you need to seek permission to use other people’s work in your thesis.  

  Target audience: Mid to late stage PGRs from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: C- Realise (Research & governance)

  Duration: 1.5 hours

• Copyright in publishing: understanding your rights as an author

  This workshop will summarise the principles of copyright and explain the copyright relationship between authors and publishers. It will summarise the different Creative Commons licenses, their uses and potential limitations and highlight how the University’s Publications and Copyright Policy empowers authors to retain the rights to their work. 

  Target audience: Researchers in all stages from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: C- Realise (Research & governance)

  Duration: 1 hour

• Introduction to the library for PGRs

  This workshop will introduce you to the Library's collections and discovery tools and  highlight the key Library resources and services for PGRs.

  Target Audience: PGRs in the early stages from all disciplines.

  RDP Theme: Core

  Duration 1 hour

• Keeping up to date with published research in your area

  There are a number of quick & effective ways to keep yourself up to date with new research in your field. This workshop will explore some of the key tools and techniques available, from alerting services to social media.  

  Target audience: PGRs and Early career researchers from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: A- Learn (Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities)

  Duration 45 minutes

• Literature searching Part 1: sources and search strategies

  Literature searching is an essential part of doctoral research. This workshop explores how to effectively apply search strategies and techniques to online databases in order to find the most relevant literature to support your research. Using open access resources as well as the multidisciplinary databases Scopus and Web of Science and discipline focused resources as examples, the facilitators will demonstrate effective search techniques and discuss the development of literature searching strategies for doctoral projects.  This session includes opportunities to develop and test your own search methods.

  Target Audience: PGRs in the early stages from all disciplines.

  RDP Theme: Core

  Duration 1.5 hours

• Literature searching Part 2: citation searching and making connections

  Literature searching is an essential part of doctoral research and this workshop, by following on from Part 1, takes a less structured approach to search strategies and considers the connections which are made between authors and papers, normally in the form of citations.  Come and find out how tools like Research Rabbit and Connected Papers are using AI to help you discover and visualise networks of papers and co-authorships, curate collections and stay up-to-date. 

  Target audience: PGRs in the early stages from all disciplines.

  RDP Theme: Core

  Duration 1 hour

• Manage your online researcher profile

  Your researcher profile enhances the visibility of your research by bringing  your research activities and publications together in one place. The workshop will demonstrate how to build your Elements profile to showcase your research, professional and teaching activities, as well as ORCiD, Google Scholar and other researcher profile tools  Please note this workshop is not relevant to PGRs based within BSMS. 

  Target audience: PGRs and ECRs from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: Core

  Duration: 1 hour

• Online publishing: your options explained

  This workshop will introduce you to open publishing for your research outputs and explain the options available to you as the author.

  Target audience: Researchers at all stages from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: A- Learn (Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities)

  Duration 1.5 hours

• Open research: principles, practices and purpose

  What is open research and why does it matter?   This workshop will look at   the concept of open research, and explore opportunities for implementing open research principles into your own practice.  Content will include open access publishing, open data, open science, open source software, open peer review and tools and techniques for the discovery of open access materials.

  Target audience: Researchers in all stages from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: Core

  Duration 1.5 hours

• Re-using other people's work and protecting your own work: an introduction to copyright

  Confused by copyright?  Are you unsure how you can use other people’s work and not sure how to protect your own work? This workshop will summarise the principles of copyright, consider how and when UK fair dealing exceptions can be applied and how, by understanding licensing and obtaining permissions, you can use other people’s work in your publications. It will also consider how you can control use of your own work.  For participants attending in person, this workshop incorporates an interactive game and opportunities for discussion. 

  Target audience: Researchers in all stages from all disciplines

  RDP Theme: C- Realise (Research & governance)

  Duration: 1.5 hours

• Understanding and using publication metrics responsibly

  Publication metrics provide a quantitative approach to the analysis of both publications and researchers and can help you with information about the reach and potential impact of your research, as well as inform decisions about where to publish.  This workshop will introduce of a number of tools providing publication metrics for both the individual researcher, research output and for institutional level analysis and will include opportunities to discuss the importance of the responsible use of bibliometric data and the University’s commitment to the responsible use of publication metrics.  

  Target audience: Researchers all stages all disciplines

  RDP Theme: C- Realise (Research & governance)

  Duration: 1.5 hours

• Using Zotero for PGRs

  This hands-on workshop will help you to stay organised and reference accurately using Zotero. You will learn how to add items to your Zotero Library, how to start creating collections, how to automatically add citations from Zotero to your work, and more.
  Important: there is an expectation that attendees will have made an account with Zotero and installed the desktop app, the web importer and the Word plug-in. For guidance on these steps, see the Getting Setup section of the Library's Zotero guide. We will not be covering these setup activities during the session.

  RDP Theme: Core

  Target audience: PGRs in the early stages from all disciplines.

  Duration 1 hour

Elements Essentials workshops

Elements is the Current Research Information System (CRIS) used at the University. Elements supports the management of research activities by providing one single point of organisation, presentation and reporting for all scholarly and research activities, including research outputs. We offer a range of online workshops on profiles, publications, impact, reporting and REF assessment. See our programme and sign up for an upcoming session.